B Pier, Beermen, Energy mount last-ditch drives

MANILA, Philippines - Globalport, Barako Bull and San Miguel Beer, three of six teams fighting it out for only three remaining playoff berths, pursue their respective bids in a crucial pair of matches in the penultimate play date of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup elimination round at the Smart Araneta Coliseum tonight.

The Energy (4-6) clash with the NLEX Road Warriors (6-4) at 4:15 p.m. then the Batang Pier (4-6) and the Beermen (3-7) mix it up at 7 p.m. – two of three games that will determine the three ball clubs joining Rain or Shine, Talk n Text, Purefoods, Meralco and NLEX in the post-elims play.

A match that also has a big bearing in the playoff race is the Ginebra-Alaska showdown at 7 p.m. tomorrow also at the Big Done.

There are still a lot of probabilities with ties likely to be forged at the end of the one-round-robin elims.

At 5-5, Ginebra is the team with the biggest chance of advancing to the next round. The Kings can afford to lose by a small margin and still gain playoff entry.

Globalport is the second team with a high probability of making it because of lopsided wins over Alaska (95-73), Barako Bull (99-81) and Kia (100-89).

The Batang Pier can make things simpler by beating the Beermen by any margin.

The Beermen, however, are likely to go all out to win to keep their hopes for a playoff passage by virtue of a quotient.

The Philippine Cup titleholder gets a shot at the last quarters berth via a quotient tiebreak with a huge win over the Batang Pier coupled by losses by Barako Bull to NLEX and by Alaska to Barangay Ginebra on Wednesday.

For coach Leo Austria, the idea is just to play the best they can.

As for the Energy, their playoff hopes hinge on their victory coupled by a loss by either Globalport or Alaska, or losses by both the Batang Pier and the Aces.

Barako Bull coach Koy Banal said they would do their best to win and just see what happens next.

Victories by both Globalport and Barako Bull will push Alaska to the wall, needing to beat Ginebra by no less than eight points to make the Top Eight.

With a faint hope of making the next round is Kia at 4-7.

The Carnival get a crack at the quarters via the quotient tiebreak in case San Miguel beats Globalport then Barako Bull and Alaska Milk lose to NLEX and Ginebra, respectively.